Durst accused of urinating on candy at CVS

Robert Durst was charged with murder after his 71-year-old neighbor's dismembered body was found in Galveston Bay.

Robert Durst was charged with murder after his 71-year-old neighbor's dismembered body was found in Galveston Bay.

Photo: AP

Photo: AP

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Robert Durst was charged with murder after his 71-year-old neighbor's dismembered body was found in Galveston Bay.

Robert Durst was charged with murder after his 71-year-old neighbor's dismembered body was found in Galveston Bay.

Photo: AP

Durst accused of urinating on candy at CVS

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Update:KHOU and KPRC reported on Wednesday that troubled real estate heir Robert Durst has turned himself in on the criminal mischief charge.

Previous report:

GALVESTON – The saga of millionaire Robert Durst has apparently taken another strange turn.

Houston police said Tuesday that the New York real estate heir, acquitted in 2003 of murder in a grisly Galveston case, is accused of exposing himself and urinating inside a CVS store on Kirby Drive near Rice Boulevard.

The incident occurred at about 12:15 p.m. Sunday after Durst purchased a prescription at the CVS pharmacy, police spokesman John Cannon said. Without any apparent provocation, Durst allegedly began urinating on the cash register, drenching a candy display, Cannon said.

"He did not seem to be agitated or arguing with anyone," Cannon said. "He turned casually and left the store and was last seen walking down the street."

Cannon said Durst was known to the store manager.

The Harris County District Attorney's Office accepted a charge of criminal mischief, a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine, Cannon said. He said the District Attorney's Office would decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.

Initial news reports said that Durst had been arrested, but Cannon said Durst had not been arrested as of Tuesday morning.

Durst attorney Chip Lewis said that as soon as he learned of the incident from Durst's wife, New York real estate broker Debrah Lee Charatan, he phoned police to assure them that there was no need to make an arrest. "I said I would make sure he presented himself to answer the charges," Lewis said.

A bond agency was making arrangements Tuesday to post a bond so that Durst could avoid jail, he said. Lewis declined to comment on the charges against his client.

Durst's turbulent life has been making national headlines for years.

In 2001, Durst was arrested and charged with murder after his elderly neighbor's dismembered body was found in Galveston Bay.

Durst said he shot Morris Black in self-defense during a struggle over a handgun, cut his body into pieces and tossed the bagged body parts into Galveston Bay.

A jury acquitted him of the murder. But in 2004, he was sentenced to concurrent five-year terms – serving only one – for evidence tampering and bond jumping.

After his 2005 release, he was re-arrested and returned to jail for violating the terms of his parole for, in part, visiting the boarding house where Black had died. Four months later, he was released from custody, again.

Despite his trouble with the law, it hasn't hurt his real estate deals.

According to a New York Post report last week, he bought two Brooklyn buildings in 2011 for $8.65 million and sold them for $21.15 million.

Although estranged from his wealthy family, Durst still has access to his trust fund and used some of that money to buy the two buildings, the Post reported.